North Carolina was one of only three states whose jobless rate fell in 2013 by more than 2 percentage points – New Jersey and South Carolina were the others. South Carolina, as it happens, trimmed unemployment benefits the year before its neighbor did.

One reason the rate plunged in North Carolina was because more people found work. North Carolina added an estimated 64,500 jobs in 2013, the sixth-largest gain in the U.S, according to a federal survey of employers.

Bigger hiring gains, not surprisingly, occurred in the much larger states of California, Texas, Florida and New York. But the fifth state was Georgia, which has a population similar in size to North Carolina. And like neighboring South Carolina, Georgia also reduced jobless benefits in 2012. (See a pattern here?)

Nearly 80% of new jobs in North Carolina, the data show, were created after the state cut the amount of cash and number of weeks people could receive benefits. The law took effect July 1.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory pushed for the change to rein in North Carolina’s growing debt. Yet conservatives also believe generous benefits discourage some people from looking for work or taking jobs that pay less than their previous ones, a view supported by academic research.

That’s not the whole story, however. The unemployment rate in North Carolina, like the nation as a whole, mainly fell because more people dropped out of the labor force. In other words, they stopped looking for work.

A different federal survey that interviews households instead of businesses found the size of North Carolina’s labor force shrunk by 111,000 in 2013.

Where did all those people go? Some died or retired, others left the state and still others may have found other means of financial support, such as a family member.

More people also sought welfare or disability benefits. The number of people using food stamps in North Carolina, for example, surged by nearly 50,000 in October, according to the latest federal figures. The 3.2% spike was the biggest in the nation and was at least twice as large as the increase in every other state except for New Jersey.

The remaining North Carolinians may have simply fallen through the gaps in the state’s social-safety net, liberal advocacy groups argue.

What about the people who got jobs? The data suggest many found seasonal work during the holidays that could prove temporary.

About one-third of the new jobs, for example, were added in the retail industry, and several thousand people were hired to deliver packages. Some 15,000 white-collar jobs were created, much of it at temp agencies. And about 10,000 people found jobs in health and education.